I am an entrepreneur and communications expert from Salt Lake City, founder of Snapp Conner PR, and author of Beyond PR: Communicate Like A Champ The Digital Age, available at http://amzn.to/1AO0PxX. I am also a frequent author and speaker on Business Communication. The opinions I express (especially when tongue in cheek) are entirely my own. My newsletter is the Snappington Post, available at http://bit.ly/1iv67Wk

Who Wastes The Most Time At Work?

A year ago my friend Russ Warner, CEO of ContentWatch, collaborated with me on the article Employees Really Do Waste Time At Work. The interest in that article continues to grow to this day. Today he shared his updated perspective. The verdict: We’re even worse off than before.

The distractions are endless. According to Socialnomics and other web sources, volumes of new data and photos are uploaded continually and Web surfers are bombarded with thousands–even millions–of fresh pics, tweets, and articles every day. More than 1.1 billion active Facebook users upload 350M photos daily. And more than 100 hours of video join the YouTube database every minute.

From Bad to Worse

For good or bad, we now have access to more than two Zettabytes of data worldwide as of 2011 (2 zettabytes = 2 trillion gigabytes). The data deluge has fostered an atmosphere of productivity loss and increased “me time” entitlement. However you look at it, the Internet provides the medium to needlessly occupy all of our time. Each of us has the option to waste or utilize time, but the outcome varies by the habits each of us set.

In business, we do not simply create or gain capital; we achieve it. Time, generously doused with effort, produces capital. When workers become lackadaisical, capital becomes weak. When employees shuffle back to their desks after an extended water-cooler conversation and toggle between a spreadsheet and their Facebook page (60 percent of users check Facebook daily), “like” a new pic on Instagram and then check their status with the 218 million professionals and friends on LinkedIn, they are wasting your time.

Whether it’s web surfing, engaging in personal phone calls, searching for new job opportunities, gossiping by the water cooler, shopping online, exploring social networks or checking personal email, a great deal of working time slips away. Of all workplace distractions, the Internet is the greatest productivity drain.

Contributing to these percentages are social media networks. The winners for the time-loss warp are Tumblr (57%), Facebook (52%), Twitter (17%), Instagram (11%) and SnapChat (4%).

How much is too much?

Imagine an employee who works 2,080 hours per year (260 days). If she is in top the bracket of time wasters, she wastes 520 hours per year. That’s 25% of her total hours at work spent on unproductive activities. Clearly this costs your company capital.

In addition to the conscious wasting of time, companies also squander salary and benefits on distractions such as watching and following national sports. Workplace contests such as March Madness can be detrimental to time management and focus. Some 86% of employees will spend at least some time at work following March Madness this year.

While employees congregate around TV screens, they’re not answering phones or supporting clients on emails. March Madness alone, for example, costs U.S. companies $175 million in wasted time in just the first two days.

Why do employees waste so much time?

When you hire employees, you expect them to be efficient and do the job right. The employees who seek you out most generally ramped up their resumes, interviewed, and wanted their job. So why, once they get the job, do they slip into habits of time wasting and self-entitlement?

According to recent data from Salary.com, employees give the following responses:

· 34% of employees say they are not challenged · 34% say they work long hours · 32% say there’s no incentive to work harder · 30% are unsatisfied with work · 23% are just plain bored · 18% say it’s due to low wages

As dismal as these reasons may be, all of them contribute to a lack of productivity. With no drive to work hard, employees simply plod through their work unfocused and unmotivated and get little done each day. Menial tasks become accepted as a way to fill time.

Wasted by Porn

Another distraction that is a huge issue from the standpoint of workplace liability is pornography viewing at work. Nielsen has found that 25 percent of working adults admit to looking at pornography on a computer at work. And 70 percent of all online pornography access occurs between 9 AM and 5 PM.

It’s clear that porn is a common occurrence at work. This not only wastes time but also creates a hazard in your work place environment as it can lead to complaints and trouble among co-workers, sexual harassment cases, and liability for employers who haven’t taken sufficient steps to keep the unwanted content from view (let alone the network bandwidth and malware issues involved).

Who wastes the most time?

Wecan classify employees into three general categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y (Millennials). Each category tends statistically towards a set of predominant habits and traits. Knowing these possible traits can help you manage the strengths and weaknesses of each group as it pertains to time misspent in the workplace.

Millennials (Gen Y) – born between the years of 1982 – 2004. They had access to the Internet and cell phones for communication.

Generation X – born between the years of 1965 -1981; they had a mix of Internet/cell phones in their later years.

Baby Boomers – born between the years 1946 – 1964. They had no Internet/cell phones even in college. They are immigrants to a technology-based society.

And so the characteristics begin. Of Millennials, 53 percent say they would give up their sense of smell rather than lose a device connection. The desperate need to be “connected” overrides the desire for their olfactory receptors to function. One third of them would rather have a flexible work environment and access to social media than a bigger paycheck. Perhaps money really isn’t the best motivator after all. The motivating factor here is flexibility in device usage. On average, these technology-obsessed workers use their devices 7.5 hours per day.

Russ Warner is an expert on internet safety and workplace and parental software controls

Each category of workers has its strengths and weaknesses; however, the least effective workers where wasted time is concerned are Millennials. According to a study, Millennials waste more than twice as much time as Boomers. Could this be due to the early-aged exposure to technology? Does the tech-savvy society we live in affect the future employees of America and their productivity levels?

Here is the shocking news. Your company roster most likely includes all of these employee categories, but the break down is this: Boomers waste the least amount of time: about 41 minutes per day. Next are Gen X’ers who waste 1.6 hours per day. Are you ready for the winning number? Millennials waste about 2 hours per day—an entire 40 hours a month!

Millennial Waste

Why do Millennials waste so much time? On the whole, studies show, they blend work and life into an immutable whole. They have developed an entitlement to “me” time at work. On the plus side, they are highly team-oriented, which naturally sets the stage for more conversation with co-workers—but yet again, also leads to the trend and the tendency to waste workplace time. The Salary.com study reveals that the number one cause for distraction among Millennials is (not surprisingly) the Internet.

How To Make Employees More Productive

The data is dismal, but Warner has offered up several strategies managers can use to help increase distracted workers’ ability to succeed. In the case of Millennials, he suggests, this is a group that clearly need more freedom in the workplace than their established counterparts in order to accomplish their goals. They will naturally need to collaborate through the use of technology. If you allow them to collaborate via the mediums they are most familiar with (including social media), they will complete projects faster and the process will run more smoothly.

However, don’t allow Millennials to run amok, Warner says. If they are becoming overly distracted by social media, give them additional structure during the workday. Provide guidelines for when they’re allowed to access their favorite social media sites, such as potentially only once every two hours. Or allow them two paid fifteen-minute breaks a day where they’re allowed to go online to do whatever they want (although workplace HR and liability rules still apply).

If your Millennial workers are wasting too much time chatting with co-workers, tell them it’s fine to chat for a few minutes, Warner suggests, but to advise them not to carry these conversations on at length. Let these employees see you’re willing to be flexible where possible, and they’ll be more likely to want to please you by working hard. Happy employees work more efficiently, and waste less time in social media and other pursuits. When the company has a policy that makes it okay to check Facebook or Instagram periodically, they are more likely to get their work done during the rest of their time.

Three Ideas for Higher Productivity

1. First, know your employees. Once you know how your employees operate, you know how to accommodate their needs. Ask them explicitly. Even take surveys, where needed. Another idea is to establish a weekly lunch-on-the-company routine. (Our agency does this. We call it “Company Lunch”. Plan parties for the weekend.

2. Second, establish rules and guidelines that motivate. Let employees contribute to the guidelines and rules. Co-creativity is important. “People need people, people need technology and people need spaces that bring those two together in effective ways that help build bonds and trust. Innovation cannot exist without these” says Business News Daily. Ditch the typical cubicle. “The hunt is on to create spaces that allow the entrepreneur to express their unique culture, that encourages spontaneous interaction, that screams that fun is a meaningful part of the creative process, and encourages personal expression making people feel at home.”

A few examples of guidelines that motivate:

Consider holding shorter meetings. Or establish a “no-meeting-day” policy: Pick a day to be meeting-free and see how employees revel in the day of no dragged-out meetings.

Consider a more flexible dress code. Should your employees be in formal business attire if they are doing heavy lifting or never seeing clients? Pick days that can be deemed “casual.” But be warned, clothing should never be offensive, frayed, or dirty in the workplace.

Provide equipment to use during free time (such as exercise equipment, foosball, or ping pong). By providing recreational equipment, you encourage physical activity, allow your workers to unwind during stressful times and possibly increase their state of health.

Train team in skills of time literacy and how to manage daily interruptions.

Stay up-to-date on new management techniques.

Consider Flex Scheduling or additional options for allowing employees to work from home, where possible, to avoid waste.

Consider these ideas as well:

-Provide flexible working hours to permit those who seek for physical activity before work, at lunch or after work. -Offer facilities for those who wish to exercise — shower, locker room, or an on-site exercise equipment, -Support a local recreation league or sports team (community leagues). -Offer discounts or subsidies on memberships at local gyms, rec centers, or health clubs. -Offer fitness opportunities at work, such as group classes or personal training.

3. Third, measure and reward results, not time on the clock. Call employees personally to thank them and congratulate them on a job well done.

Not all methods will fit your company, your employees, or your personal style. But smart businesses should take immediate action to improve their employees’ productivity. Whatever the stage of your company, set a culture in place right away to help employees understand that in your workplace, the smart use of time means everything to your company’s success.

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Comments

Cheryl, this is a fascinating look at a big issue. While I agree that all porn viewing is a waste of time, I think employees should be encouraged and enabled to use social media for genuine work purposes to enhance corporate branding and integrate the company more into the identity of its employees. I think that thinking Facebook = “waste of time” is anachronistic, personally. Don’t you think employees can validly use social media for PR and other purposes? I know you do because you post to Facebook during the day as do your people. It would be interesting, I think, to explore the blurry line between wasting time on social media and effective use of social media.

Devin, the golden question–I think social media is vital to public relations. It’s where a great deal of the dialogues happen. Look at ComicCon as a big example of that (I’ll be writing about that, in fact.) But you’re also right, the boundary between productive use of time and wasting time is a blurry line. Much to come. Thanks for your note!

Hey Devin, I think you’re right that facebook may be a necessity at work because we are a very social society. While it is possible to utilize social media as an affective tool while at work, I think Cheryl is talking about the people who are using it for hours at a time without any relation to the work. I’ve done lots of research on this issue and started a company designed to help keep employees on task while at work. For more examples of how people waste time at work you can see my research on RingForService.co.

Exactly, Russ. I’ve seen some employees take it too far. For example we had a junior employee at one point who, wanting to adhere to the philosophy that no more than a third of anything he posted should be workplace or business related, would spend hours every day browsing the web and thinking up clever things to tweet about Tiger Woods, for example, to “be sure he kept his personal credibility high.” What a disaster – by any measure he was a loss. In my opinion millenials are leaving college with better preparation for the realities of the world than they did even five years ago (and we’re hiring better as well) but there is much to navigate in helping employees to strike the right balance.

Valid Point however when they are utilizing social media for non work related tasks it becomes a problem for the company they work for and over the long term cost them lots of money due to lost work hours. For examples of this you can look at ringforservice.co.

Thank you, David – I thought Russ pulled some really interesting data points in the research. Shocking, really. But the ideas about having workout equipment and activities remind me very much of Fishbowl :)

Well researched article and many thanks for sharing your thoughts. Being a digital agency & a services company we had to restrict social media sites, smartphone usage, etc in our office. No one liked it first but over the last 3 years it has become part of life. The best learning was it pushed all of us to prioritise work and that increased productivity multifold.

I never realised till i read your article that shopping sites are also part of this list. Everyday i see at-least 4 to 6 deliveries happening in our office and everyone talks about what they bought and exchange where to get best deals. Looks like i have to add this to our list. *smiles*

During our induction we help new recruits understand the importance of being productive and when they join we don’t provide computers for 7 days and make sure that they interact with people and understand how to get things done. This is working like magic for us in bringing people together.

In India for small services companies flexi time is not a great option. I believe if anyone wants to get work done in countries like India, then they should have task management tool not project management.

We give spot awards which helps employee morale and we do a FRYday meeting where we share our experiences. More than all our use of email is reduced drastically over the last 3 years instead we use systems like Basecamp which helps everyone focus on productivity.

Very interesting ideas, Muki, particularly on the spot awards and they FRYday meetings. It sounds like your program is working well for you. Seven days with no computers? I would probably die… thanks very much for sending your notes. You may be on to something, though most U.S. companies would have a hard time of making those restrictions a go, particularly in public relations, where social media and publishing is our lifeblood. Or at least that’s my excuse. Thanks for your message.